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The string of policies presented by the Trump administration would lead to an upheaval of U.S. immigration policy, closing the door to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who enter the country every year.

On Thursday, the Trump administration unveiled its latest immigration plan during a call with Republican staffers and Trump allies hosted by White House senior advisor Stephen Miller. While many media outlets described the plan as an “offer” to protect 1.8 million Dreamers, including current DACA recipients, the plan represents a hardline crackdown on immigration that would tear apart families while fortifying the deportation regime.

The string of policies presented by the Trump administration would lead to an upheaval of U.S. immigration policy, closing the door to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who enter the country every year. The American Civil Liberties Union tweeted in response that the plan “would slash legal immigration to levels not seen since the racial quotas of the 1920s.”

Even before Trump took office, U.S. immigration policies were widely criticized as inhumane, with former President Barack Obama overseeing a record number of deportations, as well as the mass incarceration of immigrant families—including children. The plan put forward on Thursday would mark a dramatic turn in further restricting and criminalizing immigration in the United States.

Along with Trump’s proposal to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented youth who were raised in the United States, the plan includes a $25 billion “trust fund” that would be dedicated to building a massive border defense system, including a wall along the southern border with Mexico, as well as the elimination of the immigration visa lottery, an extreme cut back on U.S. migration by extended families and a vast increase in U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, attorneys, judges and prosecutors.

These policies would achieve the long-standing goals of hardline anti-immigration advocates by massively cutting back on the number of immigrants who come into the United States while providing new tools and expansive funding for programs designed to remove immigrants who currently reside in the country.

The planned limits on family migration would halt the entry of individuals including adult children, parents and siblings of U.S. citizens. As a result, the number of green cards issued every year—roughly one million—could be cut by up to half. This would result in a radical restructuring of U.S. immigration policy, with devastating results for those hoping to reunite with their family members in the United States.

By ending the diversity visa lottery, the Trump administration would effectively stem immigration to the United States by residents of countries in Africa—in Trump’s words, “shithole countries”—which currently account for around 44 percent of the visas offered every year through the program. The change would also curtail immigration for residents of countries in Asia and Eastern Europe, as well as island nations such as Haiti, who have previously benefitted from the lottery.

And along with earmarking $25 billion in funding for the border wall and other infrastructure—a project even the current head of the Customs and Border Protection doesn’t think is “feasible” or “the smartest way to use taxpayer money on infrastructure”—Trump is also seeking to “vastly expand the definitions of criminal offenses that could subject an individual to deportation,” according to CNN.

Additionally, the White House wants to speed up deportation proceedings to remove immigrants from the country more quickly and allow courts to detain individuals indefinitely as they wait to be deported, potentially for years.

Such changes are being proposed at a time when unauthorized border crossings are at their lowest levels in nearly half a century while the number of deportation arrests has soared.

Taken together, the Trump administration’s package of policies reads like a far-right wish list of white-nationalist policies aimed at shutting the U.S. border down to foreign immigrants and removing undocumented people from the United States on a vast scale.

And it should come as no surprise that the proposals were reportedly written in part by Stephen Miller, a hard-line anti-immigration advocate who for years has worked to make the country’s immigration system more nightmarish for the individuals who are forced to navigate it.

Miller’s pedigree includes looking to Ayn Rand and far-right author David Horowitz for political guidance, defending white lacrosse players at Duke University who had been accused of raping a black woman in 2006, working in the offices of right-wing zealots Michelle Bachman and Jeff Sessions, and embracing the same type of nativist, anti-immigration policies that have been pushed by the likes of “American carnage” auteur Steve Bannon.

The worldview shared by Bannon and Miller holds that the flow of immigrants into the United States poses an existential threat to the continued success of the American project, and that only by barricading the country to keep out nonwhite immigrant groups can the country truly prosper. This deeply racist ideology is in line with the views of white nationalist Richard Spencer, who claims to have been a “mentor” to Miller while the two attended Duke University.

Now, this ideology is driving U.S. immigration policy, and the proposals put forward by the Trump administration would go a long way toward achieving its aims.

While media headlines claim that Trump is backing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, the president has also said that his proposal is a take-it-or-leave-it offer, establishing that the radical anti-immigrant policies it includes would have to be enacted in order for DACA recipients to be protected. And it was Trump who rescinded DACA in the first place back in September 2017, setting up the current rush to pass legislation that would prevent the deportation of some 700,000 individuals currently covered under the program.

Trump rode into office by attacking immigrants and Mexicans, blaming them for the country’s ills and claiming that he alone could fix America’s problems—in part by shutting down our borders and carrying out mass deportations. The current proposals put forward by the administration show that Trump is staying true to his campaign’s racist and brutal promises.

Top Democrats, for their part, have so far voiced opposition to the proposals and have claimed the measures are a nonstarter for any immigration negotiations. However, Senate Democrats have also reportedly dropped the demand for DACA protections from budget negotiations with Republicans, after backing down and agreeing to a short-term funding deal to end a government shutdown, which also featured no immigrant protections.

As the Trump administration continues to push an unabashed anti-immigrant agenda, voicing opposition will be no substitute for taking action to prevent these xenophobic policies from becoming the law of the land.

Miles Kampf-Lassin, a graduate of New York University's Gallatin School in Deliberative Democracy and Globalization, is a Web Editor at In These Times. He is a Chicago based writer.
miles@inthesetimes.com
@MilesKLassin

Sure, keep believing that bubble boy. Your 33% can stick to that mantra -- Mueller and the rest of the country is paying attention,

Posted by DaMaaan on 2018-02-07 11:59:24

Unfortunately for the angry Left, there "ain't" no obstruction of justice.

If you were ignorant, and if you were a socialist...but then I repeat myself.

Posted by Bob Fritz on 2018-02-07 07:31:25

The world does keep changing and it seems, too fast for some people. They look to blame others for whatever perceived ills they think plagues the US. I mean, somebody has to have created these FAKE problems you think we have.

What neighborhoods to you speak of? You certainly speak in broad terms, but the impression you give is that there is some GROUP of people doing this. Who is this? Why don't you be more specific and thus, transparent. In fact, it all sounds like nonsense - trees and woods, kings and queens.. what, did some person cut your tree down? WTF are you actually saying? It almost looks drug induced.

Posted by DaMaaan on 2018-02-07 00:01:27

No, but if you were educated you would realize that obstruction of justice IS in the category of high crimes and misdemeanors. In fact, it was to be used to start impeachment proceedings against Nixon and was one of the charges against Clinton. Thankfully Nixon resigned since he had a bit decency and honor, but Trump, not so much. He'll turn it into a constitutional crisis.

As John Oliver says: "WE GOT HIM!"

Posted by DaMaaan on 2018-02-06 23:54:05

Sieg Heil!

Posted by DaMaaan on 2018-02-06 23:46:51

If you were educated, you'd know that imp-eachment requires guilt for "high crimes and misdemeanors."

There is no evidence for that on the part of President Trump.

Defeating Hillary Clinton in a free election is not a high crime or misdemeanor.

Posted by Bob Fritz on 2018-02-04 07:07:23

it's called family reunification and it is something most Americans have always supported.

Posted by FactsSaveLives on 2018-02-03 08:55:10

A "save the white race" novel. Thanks for make it doubly clear what Trump supporters really stand for.

Posted by FactsSaveLives on 2018-02-03 08:54:20

Trump wants to restrict chain immigration. We should allow people living her legally to invited all relatives? Mother? Father? Grandparents? Uncles? Aunts? Second-cousins-once-removed?

Where do you draw the line?

Posted by kastigar on 2018-02-03 08:45:56

The land is not 100% white so this is an absurd accusation. Why do the people on the present land have no rights to have some control over their neighborhoods, the land, which is not all white?

The economy has been undermined by an influx of workers who will take less money, yet also take services offered by the government through taxes. They may be used by others, through need, to undermine desirable goals, such as protecting trees and woods.

Then, there is the overload of people going into neighborhoods, changing the character by their numbers, forcing unwanted changes, such as excessive traffic and pollution, forcing the government to counteract this with greater regulations that put greater burdens on the people than there would be, at a greater cost.

It undermines the vote by diluting it to the point that power shifts to those that can manipulate people.

There is no reason why there should not be a more regulated plan. The lack of which is what pushed "the wall" idea ahead, which may cause damage to wildlife and the ecology. If there was a better idea introduced earlier, the issue would not continue to escalate.

The one that is racist is Representative Pelosi for saying that people who want a sane policy are doing so because of race. No, we want stable neighborhoods that are not overloaded with people, that still have trees and good jobs.

It is a shame that Senator Schumer caved on the issue to vocal elements, from what he said, continuing friction with President Trump that had lessened. Falling into a trap so easily sprung.

Democrats need to wake up and see that the world keeps changing, and to keep trying to fight battles from the past is a losing proposition. Writing off 'white working people', gets extreme reactions, lessens everyone's power, and is not looking at the issues properly. It is not the "white working man" that is gentrifying areas, it is the rich and politicians, some of who are not white.

It is not a race issue. The streets are filled with all races. To let the issue be hijacked by extremes will not solve the problems, only aggravate them.

It is time to be able to solve problems, not continue them on for an eternity as "hot issues" to win elections for people that maintain power for too long, instead of being citizen politicians. It is time for every citizen to stand up and create a better Usonia, a land that offers opportunities to every one, that does not lodge an elite in dynastic continuation like the kings and queens that were rejected by the People.

Posted by Blackcatprowliii on 2018-01-29 08:59:47

"Who we accept should be based on merit"

I thought we were worried about these immigrants taking our jobs? If we take the 'best of the best', doesn't that mean they'll be taking our good jobs?

If illegals taking jobs is the real problem, then why aren't the people GIVING them the jobs being punished? I don't hear anybody talking about that, either.

There's so many more things $25 Billion could be better spent on than a wall/fence/gate/keep out sign. Anyway, Mexico was supposed to pay for it, right? Or does Trump get a mulligan on that one, too?

Posted by Tom on 2018-01-28 22:34:44

Trump's new game is to hold part of the public hostage until he gets his way with a plan that most of the public rejects. IMPEACH or INDICT crooked Trump!

Posted by Snead Hearn on 2018-01-28 15:44:23

Go, Trump! And people who support him should read this novel: "Hold Back This Day" - amazon

Posted by Augie Dammler on 2018-01-28 08:31:23

....

Posted by Augie Dammler on 2018-01-28 08:30:12

I love it The White Rules and Trump is leading the charge to get this country white once again.

Posted by jimmyk520000 on 2018-01-28 04:49:02

We were told that 800,000 thousand young people who were brought illegally into our country was the problem since they knew no other home. So Trump not only agrees to give them a path to citizenship but 1 million more but that's racist ? So it's not really about the Dacca kids it's about more immigration. 80% of the American people polled said they wanted less or no immigration. The internationalist who want a One World Government don't care what Americans want. No one from any country has a "right" to immigrate here, it's a privilege that we grant as we see fit. Who we accept should be based on merit, not on skin color or religion but what they bring to the table. A lottery is ridiculous almost as ridiculous as letting the Dreamers bring in their parent's who caused the problem initially when they broke our laws and brought their children with them.

Posted by Clifford Warner on 2018-01-27 16:38:09

So what is DACA? A Racist Hispanic Supremacist wish list? Majority of DACA ILLEGALS are HISPANIC that come from a RACIST HISPANIC NATION.